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"Welcome to the Weekend Chat" January 5-7, 2018 All Members are Invited!
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New Members Saying Hello (our favorite!)

Puzzles by Laura Bozzay

"Today Is" by Dorothy Barry

Eddie's Picks - Movies & Music

Where in the World is Steve Today?

Members Checking in via "All About the Weekend Chat"

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The Weekend Chat is for everyone. It's a place to catch up on what people are up to, and to share what you've been doing. New members can say hello, introduce themselves, ask questions, and meet each other. Our seasoned members can share progress or successes from their projects, give tips and advice, or chime in on hot topics.

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Enjoy yourself and spread good will :)

WikiTreers weather the weather by chatting with us! Welcome to the Weekend Chat! Everyone is welcome! Let your spirit show this week!

Hi Roberta, Is your GEDCOM on your computer/software or at another paid genealogy website? How large is your GEDCOM? I looked at your contributions and did not see that you had uploaded a Gedcom for Gedcompare. Uploaded GEDCOM's are removed (after 30 days I think) if you did not work on or use it after a period of time. On 17 Dec. 2017 I posted a comment on your profile in answer to your GEDCOM questions. You can click one of the two GEDCOM Mentors names to send them a personal message asking for help with your GEDCOM. Also, links to the Help page for GEDCOM's and GEDCOMpare are in the comment I posted on your profile.

My Balkans Gedcom: I have it on my computer and it's been there a long time, since summer of 2014. After that I was immersed in originating the Jewish Roots Project.

In my excel file, it's HUGE: 12415 LINES, I shudder to think of it.

I see from Laura's information, it's possib;e to work on one line and others later. That would take a lifetime for me with my non-tech and varifiably old brain.

Is it possible to select out the English and Scottish names and keep at first only the Jewish names, and later add the German names? That would obscure the possible connections between the two of course. I'll recheck my profile page--the holidays interfered probably.

I'm so grateful for your seasoned awarenesses and assistance, David, just as I am for Laura's. I'd rather be the one helping others, but I started this search too late in my life, and technology wasn't on my side when I started to be curious about it.

Hi back Roberta, Not sure that an Excell file (even if it is a copy of your family tree) can be uploaded as a GEDCOM to WikiTree. Usually, a GEDCOM is saved in a software program made for genealogy or at a paid genealogy website. It would be best if you contacted one of the GEDCOM Mentors I listed on your profile and ask them for help on this. Back before the GEDCOM/GEDCOMPare process changed I like Laura chose to enter my family/ancestors one by one manually.

Hi Roberta, the file I sent you is smaller. Just one of the surnames. not 100k names although I have done that... but it is too big to email.

Collaborators seem to find me in several ways and either send me a private message here on WikiTree or post something in G2G or because I admin several lists for rootsweb (when it is working) they contact me on those or the boards I admin. Then I also am a co-moderator on one Yahoo Genealogy Group and admin for several others so they can find me there too. Plus I have had an article about Contextual Genealogy published in several genealogical magazines some in English and some in French. Plus I have permissioned it for a genealogy blog so people can find me there. Lastly via DNA results. So I am pretty easy to find actually.

Some of the newer gedcom programs let you upload data from Excel but that is not what I have my spreadsheets set up for. They are set up to do analysis on the entries to find duplicates, to find improbable dates... doing things kind of like what we do as Data Doctors here. I have been doing this for 20 years. Because my glass maker family can have 3 versions or more a one person's name I did this so I could look at everyone who shared a birth date initially. Then I could see Hans Walter, Johann Walter and Jean Walter along with Jean Georges dit Chambre Walter and Georges Walter who all shared the same wife and same birthdate... they just had variations of the same name...

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I have a question that doesn't really need it's own thread in the greater g2g forum as it has nothing to do with Wikitree at all. I have a tree on Familysearch and that's probably my first mistake. I have issues with them. I watch several profiles I made and such.

I checked out the profiles this morning and this guy disconnected a couple from their daughter for the second time. He did so once before and I had to reconnect Mary Clovis Paris to her parents Pierre and I forget the wife's name right now. They're on wikitree.

I reconnected them and sent the guy a private message saying why they were related. They're in the Quebec registers and all that. Never got a reply back. Fast forward to this morning and the guy did it again. I'm like "What is your deal?"

I sent him a message. Still polite even though I was kinda annoyed. Reconnected the profiles. Again. I then sent a message to the admins of FS as I was having an issue with this jerk. The ball is in their court. The trees here and on geni have the right parents and that's good enough. Am thinking of swearing off FS and just use it for research. The site annoys me. There's like no profile managers or any help whatsoever. It's like the Wild West of genealogy sites. Only no saloons. Because God knows it's enough to drive a man to drink.

And yes I was polite in my messages to him. Think I made the right choice? I mean the evidence was right there dancing in front of his face! I did everything short of linking him to wikitree. The parents are well established and well known.

Side note: It's kinda cool to have someone with the last name Paris in the tree. Tom Paris on Voyager was one of my favorite characters on that show. Be nice to find a Picard...

It is crazy! I'm like "Dude!" One thing I am not sure of is maybe he doesn't speak English. Then again his edits are in English and he just chooses to be a jerk. Whatever. I reported him. That's it, then.

Same here. I thought I'd made a tree there so I could have all the sources in one spot. It seemed logical at the time. I kept building it up and then I found errors that did not match stuff found here and on Geni.

For example, I found this one branch that was duplicated to another branch but the kids were different. It made it look like the guy was married to his sister. I fixed that mess.

Of the few users of that site I talked to, a couple are annoyed that the tree is a mess. A huge mess. The new policy of people needing to log in to see records makes sense a little. But, they have MUCH bigger problems.

I came across a tree for my ancestors from the 1700s that had two men married to each other because obviously the person thought Jean was a female as in English it is a female name but in French it is male and means John. They married to brothers.... talk about a mess! Sigh...

Haven't had that issue. Just people putting the same couple on two sections of a tree. Sometimes as father and son and makes for gloriously fun times editing. Oops. Broke the sarcasm detector again. Keep forgetting to set it to "New Englander"

At the top of most WikiTree pages you will see several menu choices. These are two of them and there are some really good links under them. Check what is under the various links because new links get added all of the time. For example did you know there is a quick link under your WikTree-ID to both the Open Profile Request and Unresponsive PM form? These links make doing things faster for you. Some links are in more than one location. Let’s explore the first 2 links this week.

My WikiTree this is where you go to:

access your Watchlist,

run your Suggestions Report, this one runs just for those on your watchlist.

modify settings,

see the anniversaries / birthdays of people on your Watchlist,

see the badges you have earned and to see how many contributions you have made so far this month to earn a milestone badge,

see all of the contributions you have ever made,

work with DNA confirmation,

see an activity feed specific to your family,

access your tree and tools for running various kinds of tree reports,

access the G2G feed specific to you based on your follow tags,

upload and compare GEDCOMs,

see all the images pertinent to your Watchlist,

quickly navigate to your home page,

quickly navigate to your profile page,

see pending and completed requests for the trusted list,

view information about the first 8 generations of your family surnames,

see all the Thank Yous you have received,

see surnames you have tagged and any activity on them in WikiTree under the WikiTree Genealogy Feed,

log out.

Your WikiTree ID this is where you go to:

quickly access various tree reports like the compact tree, the dynamic tree, to print a copy of your tree, to access Family Tree and Tools, family group sheet, family list,

see an index of all profiles with you surname,

see your G2G profile,

see your descendants,

see or edit your profile,

connect on social media using cousin bait,

review global connections where you can see how you connect to various other WikiTree profiles including through marriages,

review relationships where you can check your blood relationship to other profiles,

set up a list of the DNA tests you have taken and see how the DNA walks your tree,

search for matches within WikiTree and access merging tools,

quickly set up how your name displays,

see orphaned profiles that match surnames on your watchlist and adopt them,

quickly access the Open Profile Request Form, or the Unresponsive PM form

Kay can you expand a little on how to use it? I noticed you can enable and disable some of the sites and that there are 6 that showed up on my page and a link to show more. I did post the url to see all the sites in the tips it is https://rootssearch.io/search/settings But if you have used this successfully please share what you did and how it works.

The Research menu is the same as the Research button on an open profile, which appears in the public view.

Click the Research menu to open the RootsSearch window. Fill in your WikiTree username/password, if requested (it will persist for a while). The search form is prefilled with data from the profile. Click on the site you want to search. For FamilySearch you might get a “what do you want to search for” prompt - if so just close the FamilySearch window and click FamilySearch again.

To find more results, start removing search criteria (e.g., death date/place) and search again. Maybe narrow the search by location. Repeat. For women after searching LNAB, change to married name and search again.

I usually just change the criteria in the site window (e.g., FamilySearch). You can also change criteria in the RootsSearch window. You might be surprised how many matches you find for Unknown in records.

This project is intended to improve data in the WikiTree database. The mission of this project is to help WikiTree members create more accurate profiles which equates to better overall genealogy. Good genealogy is based on sources, so all changes should be sourced.

4. Unique names are something data doctors look at to determine if they are incorrect or correct.

True

False

5. Data Doctors want your help in reviewing profiles that need a lot of work

True

False

6. Some suggestions are do not need to be fixed and are marked as false errors

True

False

7. Data Doctors follow a Code of Conduct that includes:

a. DO NOT remove information from a profile. In most cases, information is simply moved to the correct field or to the biography.

b. If you do make changes such as changing an unknown birth location to a known place, make sure to add the source to the biography that validates the change.

c. On open profiles, you do not need to contact the profile managers for every error correction. The change log (under each profile’s “Changes” tab) will show every change that has been made. The exception to this is if you plan to make a major change based on primary sources. Then, it is a courtesy to contact the profile manager through a private message before making any changes.

d. All of the above

8. Data Doctors want each of you to run your own suggestions report and ask for help in G2G if you need it.

True

False

9. The Clean A Thon cleared:

Over 10,000 issues

Over 5,000 issues

Over 50,000 issues

Over 80,000 issues

10. Weekly challenges focusing on one specific type of suggestion are run weekly.

True

False

11. Some suggestions check for duplicate profiles

True

False

12. Some suggestions are location specific

True

False

13. Some suggestions look for things that do not follow style guidelines

Laura, you are more than welcome to use it. Anyone can. If you use the suggestions report, do unsourced profiles, participate in the Data Doctor's challenge, or even if you would love to add interesting and neat ideas or helpful links. It is all there as well as a live chat.

Steven you might remember my IT group blocks the use of chats attached to Excel or other software not going through a browser like this one due to security concerns. I cannot use the spreadsheet because of the enabled chat feature it is blocked by my security system.

It is a really great group of people who sincerely want to help make WikiTree healthier and stronger. If you have never looked at your suggestions report, take a moment today and run it. If you have a large number and find it daunting you can ask for help on G2G. There are a lot of data doctors who are happy to help you and give you pointers about how to fix some of the suggestions.

For example, I will open up a Word document and put things that I know I will be using a lot like the names of the US colonies before 1776 so if you used USA on say 20 profiles before 1776 you can copy and paste in the correct name of the colony and clear up 20 profiles rather quickly.

It has been cold and freezing all week in our beautiful Mountains of West Virginia. My new year's started off with the well water being frozen to my home. Thank God for my son who was smart enough to put a small propane heater in the well house. Within two hours the water came again to my two houses which the well supplies. God has provided again by blessing me with what was needed.

I forgot to also mention that because of the freezing cold in West Virginia our schools have been closed for two weeks now. I am happy that they have thought of our children including our teachers being out in the cold.

HaHaaaa: About 25 years ago before my husband passed away we were in a bad snow storm with electricity being out for over two weeks. We lost our food and trying to keep warm with a propane heater. We were camping that is for sure.

Then about three years ago in the summertime our electricity was out for over three weeks. Just think of the poor people and pray for them that is still out of electricity after the hurricanes still yet.

It been in the 20 and 10 here in Loudon, Tennessee but we haven't had any snow here yet but they are saying that Knoxville, Tennessee on Sunday and Monday they are suppose to have snow. Welcome everyone to the WikiTree Weekend Chat. Ditto to what everyone saying about being careful.

Thank you David. We have been fortunate in the ice and snow department so far we haven't gotten any. But we are suppose to get freezing rain Sunday. It is suppose to get below freezing tonight, it is already 1.

Right now we are dry here in the St Louis MO area but tomorrow we are expecting ice and snow depending on which weather report you look at. Some are saying no accumulation and some are saying because the ground so cold even though the air temp is above freezing tomorrow it will create ice. We are surrounded by 3 rivers (Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec) and often weather jumps over the area. So fingers crossed this jumps... Our favorite saying is... If you don't like the weather in St Louis, wait a minute....

Weather in the US and Canada are the big news right now with flights being cancelled all over the place. Some of our members are snowed in, some might be stranded at airports, while members in the Southern Hemisphere are in the hot season of summer. No matter where you are, take a break from the weather and join the chat! So what are you up to and how are you handling what Mother Nature has handed to you?

Glad you got some rain but feel for anyone dealing with flooding. We have had our share in the area. We are on high ground so not an issue for us but many in our community have been affected in the past several years. We have sandbagging down to a fine art... Take a ladder and put it across 2 saw horses. Get one of those street cones and cut to tip off. Drop into the open slats in the ladder to make a funnel. Shovel and fill sandbags. Have younger kids place the empty ones under the cone, teens can help shovel. With a team of 2 adults and 8 kids we did over 500 sandbags in an hour. The kids really wanted to help save their town. It was a good experience for all and showed them that they can make a difference no matter their age.

This past week we had night temps in the teens and daytime temps in the upper 20's. Now a warming trend with low around 30% and high around upper 50's. Change of scattered showers this Sat. late and into Sunday morning.

I got a scare Thursday concerning my car. With the extreme cold temperatures for the south, I kept warming up my 2002 Mazda about every 6 hours but then noticed water dripping out underneath. I thought I busted a hose but found out they were ok, just the exhaust pipe allowing water to drain from being condensed.

We got the edge of what our newscasts called a winter hurricane. We got about 12” of snow and steady 40mph winds. Our highs are in the 20s, lows near 10. This has paralyzed the area, which doesn’t usually get this much snow, and snow removal depends on warmer temperatures and sunshine to melt it. We spent some time shoveling today. I really should be used to this, growing up and living in Central NY with an average of 225”, but have lived further south too long.

I'm in Central Virginia, Richmond area. It must have been close to 0 in my yard - but weatherman says it didn't get that low. We have a frozen pipe. That's not good but tells you how cold it is. We had snow Thursday and it is solidly frozen.

From the wheel to smartphones, technology has been changing the world. January 6 is the day to recognize those achievements and to look to the future of technology.

Imagine the world without technology. In our daily lives, we can’t take a step without coming into contact with a form of it. The world is abuzz with technology.

Outside of the healthcare sector, tech jobs are one of the strongest and fastest growing divisions. And let’s face it, technology is at the center of most jobs these days. From agriculture, healthcare and fitness to entertainment, food service and security we use technology to keep us organized, connected, healthy and safe.

HISTORY

StoAmigo, a technology-based company headquartered out of Las Vegas, founded National Technology Day. The Registrar at National Day Calendar declared National Technology Day in 2016.

The whole entire Internet has assisted me because if it weren't for the Internet, and people or genalogical groups putting their stuff online, I would not have half the details I have been able to find on both mine and my husbands lines!!

I really cannot just narrow anything down to one thing - it's everything - but mostly the freedom of the internet!!

Now I can relate to that Robynne. Before the internet, I had no communication with my cousins because of loosing their addresses and phone numbers when I came back from German. It was such a help to first find them on Facebook, and then to start talking on the phone which led to a family bible being sent to me that belonged to my father. That lead to finding his parents and other relatives. Not to mention reuniting and reminiscing with my cousins about our family visits during the summer months back in the 60's.

It is amazing how we can now research ancestors from all over the world while sitting in our lounge rooms. We are truly spoilt compared to researchers even 30 or 40 years ago, who had to write letters to far-flung archives and wait sometimes for months for response. I still like my laptop for doing genealogy, although if I don't have to do a lot of typing, or moving around screens, my tablet is really convenient. I love the way so many records are now digitized.

oh I need to do this! I love excel - but have downloaded the open office instead as it is free and I have to get used to it as it is a little bit different - I have lots of my french people that have the same name - how many Maries can be in one tree!!! This could help me a lot straightening out those folks - will have to get some tips from you!

I export an rft copy of a gedcom, copy and paste it into excel.
Add columns like surname sorting where I settle on one version of the many ways of doing a surname. This allows me to sort by first name within a static surname no matter what version was used on an official document. I add a column for birth year, marriage year, and death year. This allows quick searching within centuries.
I add a column for mother's maiden name and spouse surname. If you want to see an example shoot me your email address in a private message and I will send you samples of what I have done.

Laura, I'm thinking now it's ok for me to have HOPE. I've scanned my contents and don't show your rft of Gedcom in my files. Would you please send me one. I'll count your columns and rows, which I think is n necessary. this is the first time In over a year that I've made time to work on this, a major project in finding more than one family of my father's living relatives and their ancestors.

I think I asked you before how you set this up Laura - can not find it but I know you had some tips - I have to go to work soon but may get this started soon as I really need to stay organised and find that my books and binders and files are a pain to wade through when I need to check stuff - an excell file would be nifty as heck once I set it up

Part of the course work for my Fine Arts degree was Cinema and we did three semesters on Roger Corman. He is considered to be a true artist in cinema crafting. His movies ALWAYS made a profit and at times, his cheapies outgrossed "quality" films being shown in theaters at the same time. And he's highly respected by many in the cinema world. He gave a first job and mentorship to such greats as Francis Ford Coppola and the legendary Jack Nicholson among many. He was Vincent Price's favorite producer/director.

As long as you don't like Josh Trank and Fant4stic, we're cool. We will always be cool. THAT version of Fantastic Four was reprehensible. The Tim Story Fantastic Four movies, while bad, at least tried to get the Fantastic Four down. They came close. And hey they gave us Chris Evans who later became Cap.

And Michael B Jordan joined the cast of Black Panther after being in Fant4suck. There's something about the MCU bringing in former Human Torches....

At least Marvel Studios is getting the rights to the FF and X-Men back. The thing that was wrong about Fant4stic is that you can't make a "body horror" movie out of a team whose whole gimmick is family and space exploration. The comic is basically Doctor Who.

But, yeah. Roger Corman's '90s FF was never released. It's okay. Not the best. But, at least it's better than Fant4stic. THAT movie is atrocious.

Just came in from taking care of the 'rents driveway. It's cold. But, not too bad. Yesterday was crazy. Some people were actually out there driving in the storm. Weirdos, man.

This week I added more of my dad's side to the tree here. I may add all the siblings of my great grandparents. I did find some sad stories on the Legault side, though. I wasn't sure of who belonged to who so I checked the censuses. The Legaults had 11 kids. Maybe a 12th. I'm not sure..

It all started when I finally tracked down Lucie Cadron's year of death and place which is Haverhill. Someone on Familysearch put her death down as 1912. That's why I had it here and other places. It turns out that after Anthony Legault died, she was widowed in the 1910 census. Then she had a marriage with some guy whose name was either Napoleon according to the marriage record or Paul Lahaye. She died in the '30s.

I went with Paul Lahaye on the profile here because he was in the 1920 census married to Lucie (Lucy) I found that a daughter named Blanche from her marriage to Anthony Legault was in the census and living in their house. 1930 Census she had been married to a guy with the last name Yerxa.

The other night my mom told me a little about Blanche from what she remembered growing up. She passed away in the '60s. So it looks like the Legaults had 10 kids. But, there's one kid I am not too sure about.

FS gives me a hint about a Phillip Legault and a marriage that mentions him and his parents. Not sure if it's the right person. His birthday is in 1885. I checked the 1880 census and he isn't there with his parents.

Here's where things take a turn to crazy town. The first census he appears in, he's in the 1900 census as a 15/16 yr old inmate in this place in New York, FAAAAAAR from the family. It says he was born in Mass. I dunno if this is the same guy. The place was apparently called the State Industrial School in Rochester City, Monroe, New York.

He was an inmate there. I dunno if this is the guy I am looking for. But he next shows up getting married in Haverhill and that's the last of it.

I asked one of my mom's cousins if she knows anything because my mom doesn't. This is just wild. Probably a little frustrating. I dunno if this Phil guy is one of the Legault kids.

As it is, these are Anthony and Lucie's kids as per the censuses and my mom's recollection since they were quite old when my mom was a kid.

Lucy (1874-1952)
Melvina (1876-1964)
Delphine (1878-1952)
Mary (1886-1936)
Emma (1888-1896)<-This story is very sad. She died when she was like 7 from a disease that's curable today.
Mary Rose (1890-
Henrietta Frances (1892-1973) My great grand
Clara (1894-1961)
Matilda (1896-1964)
Blanche (1899-1983)
Oliver (1901-) Anthony died not long after Oliver was born. That's also very sad.

This is all compiled from censuses since the girls would be in and out of the houses after getting married. I thought Blanche was missing in the 1920 Census. I was wondering about that. But, she was in the census with her mom's second husband. By 1930 she was with the other guy. Oliver had grown up by that point. I found almost everyone's birth records.

My mom has a TON of cousins. Some cousins she doesn't even know. I talk to a couple of them on a regular basis via Facebook. You need a flowchart to get them all. Or a family tree. My grandfather is one of five. My grandmother is one of six kids. The Legaults are on her side and the cousins I talk to are the daughters of her siblings. In one case a granddaughter. Her name's Lisa.

She agrees. The Felker and Hamel clans need name tags and flowcharts. I guess that's where I come in. =D I asked her to ask her mom about the twisty turny kid. See if there's anything to to that. Because hey why not have 12 kids, right?

What's even weirder is that the birth certs and other documents keep spelling her maiden name as: Cadran, Cadron, Cadrin, Cadrant etc. So confusing. But, hey. One mystery about her solved at least. =D

I completed a merge with her last night and I went to see if I could find sources. Nope. None to be found. We know she existed as she's mentioned in her husband's umm....criminal record. Maybe she didn't want to be found after her husband did those things. Just be like "I don't want any part of this guy!" Wouldn't blame her.

Hope everything is good. Am working on writing and comic stuff. Starting a new story line in space. Eddie might like this one. =)

Not sure what happened with that second link... go to home on the menu bar on the page that says there is nothing there... then look to the far right hand side and scroll down until you see 2015. Select that

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Fuschia is a color often associated with females. Perhaps your Y chromosome is missing the ability to filter for fuschia. I contend the missing part of the X is also where the shopping gene is located!

LOL. I dunno. Was still partially blinded by that. Website could be designed a wee bit better. But, whatever. There are some really bad website designs out there. While that isn't the worst, it's still kinda meh.

Good info, though. =D

I don't mind Fuschia in some places. It works in some video games I've played. It's usually subtle. =D

Spoiler alert: This post is not about genealogy, just weather related issues.

I don't know about everyone else but those who live in the mid south of the United States got a taste of what it means to be cold Burrrrrrr.

Our weather forecast was like this starting on New Years Day, Monday, Jan lst: "The coldest air to reach Middle Tennessee in 20 years has moved into the area. During this period, temperatures in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky will remain in the single digits, while breezy conditions will produce wind chill temperatures ranging from five to 15 degrees below zero. Temperatures will not reach above the freezing point in Middle Tennessee until Wednesday afternoon, ahead of another storm system that could bring a wintry mix to the area on Thursday morning".

A slow warm up in temperatures is expected as the weekend progresses. By Sunday, on the edge of precipitation moving into the mid state region, will be a wintry mix, with a broad area of rain.. and even some snow flurries. Then they posted this:

With the usual cold weather warnings about pipes freezing and black ice, I found some a list of simple steps to help protect your animals during cold temperatures:

Keep pets inside. If animals can't be inside, provide a warm, comfortable place. Face shelter away from wind and provide a flap or door to help keep the animal's body heat inside.

Bedding is essential for insulation. It protects the animal from the snow and ice underneath the body and allows the animal to retain heat within the bedding.

Cats may sleep under the hoods of cars to stay warm. If you have outdoor cats in your area, check under the hood before starting your car.

Keep your pets secure in fencing or use a leash. Pets can lose their sense of smell and direction in the snow and ice, so they can become lost.

Wipe off your dog's legs and stomach after being outdoors to remove any ice, salt or chemicals.

Outdoor pets need more calories to produce body heat so extra food and water must be provided. Devices are now available to keep water dishes from freezing; if one is not available, fill and replace water frequently.

One very cold day there was a knock at the door and two nice police officers were there to remind us of the animal danger alert due to the cold. Mals are good for about 50 below zero with a full coat. I told them they were welcome in the house but would not come in. If they could get them in, I would appreciate it. One of the officers asked me what kind of dogs we had. I told him and he said, have a good day, that breed loves this stuff. And they did! They had dug tunnels in the snow and were having a ball sliding through them. They were not allowed out of the yard without one of us and we had only 4 foot fences and they kept falling out of the yard and then standing there howling to be brought back into the yard. Our neighbors stood there laughing at all the antics and craziness. We finally got them to come in with cow knuckle bones which they devoured in about 15 minutes. They were lots of fun but definitely had a mind of their own! One of them was 135 pounds at full growth and 27' at the shoulder. My Aunt called him the cow. I had to have a special collar made because his neck was bigger than the largest available collar of 32" People used to cross the street when walked them except the children they would coming running with the parents screaming. The dogs loved children and would lie down and let them climb all over and pull their ears and tails and they did not mind. My own children learned to walk pulling up on them and walking with them. No one messed with our house. We had giants protecting it.

The children all loved the dogs. We had 3 elderly sisters as neighbors. They used to come down and get the biggest one, his name was Kodi, and take him to their house if they had workmen coming. Our neighbors were always borrowing our dogs! It was really funny. They would give them Christmas presents like chew bones or biscuit treats. They were like the neighborhood pets. They were quite spoiled really. Yes the police officers in our area were always really nice. One of our friends used to train the police dogs for the department. So we knew a number of the K9 unit folks.

Just returned to Maryland from Shreveport, Louisiana last night. I was there for the baptism of my new Godson, Michael Newman. It was a lovely ceremony and a wonderful visit with my nephew and niece. It was unusually cold there - the water froze in their dog's bowl in their back yard..

Fortunately, there were no problems with my flights to Atlanta, Georgia and from there to Baltimore, Maryland. Not so fortunate for my nephew and niece, though. After they dropped me off at the airport in Shreveport they headed to the Dallas airport to fly to California. I called them when I arrived in Baltimore and they were still stuck in the Dallas airport (with a 6-month old baby and a 7-year old) due to cancellations of flights coming in from the East coast.

OK my weekly chat with my mother and sister went well. NZ has had some rather bad storms this past week - high winds, flooding in several places across the North island, trees and power lines coming down.

While we here in Canada are dealing with very low temps - -21 degrees Celcius (-5.8F) with windchills of -28C (-18.4F)

I have not really done any genealogy lately. But I did start up the 52 Ancestors for 52 weeks Challenge. Details below if anyone else want to join in.

Each week will have a weekly thread that will be posted to the Space Page linked above. All you have to do is to go back and write up a post or make a recording or video or find a picture - whatever fulfils the prompt for the week. You have all year (until the end of Dec) to do as many as you can for each prompt.

There will be a badge for everyone who manages to post something for all 52 prompts.

Monthly batches are accepted. Just make sure that you place the posts on the right threads or the links to the posts on the right threads. These can be posted to FB or any other social media as long as we get a link on the correct weekly thread. Or they can be posted to the weekly threads themselves.

Ok so count me in. I just signed up on your G2G thread as a comment to your post. This is what I posted for the first thread whose word was START:

I have several I am going post for Start. Each one is the Start to one of my branches of my lines..

On my Father's side:

My oldest direct ancestor is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stenger-208 Claus Stenger born about 1425. I am in contact with many of his direct descendants including my cousins Luc Stenger who is writing a comprehensive book on the Stenger family and Marie-Claire (Stenger) Christophe who both live in France and are officers in a World Heritage Site dedicated to the memory of French glass and crystal makers in Vallerystall. He is the start of my glass maker line.

I am here and on time there been no problems here. I have been trying to merge, source, connect and clean up WikiTree. and also trying the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge and Data Doctors weekly challenge. Welcome to the WikiTree Weekend Chat.

Hi Linda, lovely to have your welcoming posts coming up, and you’re definitely tops at selecting best answers. Thanks for your very warm presence on the chat and sounds like you have been absolutely flat chat on WikiTree!

Just dropping in to say hi!..... I don't want to rub it in (but I will!!). It is a beautiful day here - currently 28 degrees celsius with a nice sea breeze. Cicadas in the background. I should try to work out how to send a photo. Might have to post from my ipad. This week I learned how to create a category without using an actual profile to make it ie so you just end up with an empty category that someone else can use.

Hmmm, do I talk about the confusion the weather here in New Zealand has been experiencing for the last few weeks? Erm nope

Oh I know! How about the connection earlier in the week of George Grenfell and tomorrow Erskine Bronson and his father get connected! Um also found about a dozen duplicate profiles, connected a few singular unlinked profiles. Will be connecting Coky and Mel within the next few days as well

Well, it's now getting on towards 13:30 Saturday afternoon - time for lunch!

David, that's the fun of it! Scroll through the internet, see an individual which looks interesting, check WikiTree to see whether the person has a profile and then figure out how/where they connect to.

Robynne, no flooding or power loss here although I hear that elsewhere in my region (Wellington) had experienced both

So what was lunch? I was babysitting and missed lunch. But we just finished a dinner of steak and potatoes and mixed vegetables and salad and tonight I used Green Goddess dressing. Every now and then I get a hankering for it... takes me back to my youth! Yes I can remember that far back!

Update: Profiles for Coky and Mel have been added, they connect tomorrow, but... found this and interestingly there are already two ancestral relations to their father. Interesting story behind their father to (a Polish Jew deported along with his family to Siberia,,,) If anyone would to tackle connecting his ancestry have fun!

Oh that PBS show does sound interesting. Wonder if it will be run again. I have missed most of everything tonight dealing with a possibly hacked credit card. I froze it so at least no one can use it but had a charge show up that does not look familiar to me or my husband. These alerts are great though. Hopefully we will have an answer soon.

Well, my husband found the show on Amazon prime movies, but it was a PBS American Experience show. It quit partway into the show. Checking on FIOS on demand we didn’t find it. The name of the show was “The Pilgrims”.

We often find older shows on the PBS World channel.

My husband commented that the folks on this forum would know how to search for it.

I hope everyone had a great week. Like most everywhere else in the states, it is very cold in southeast Virginia. We had 8 " of snow the other day & it is supposed to go down to 3 F tonight. My camellias & gardenias are not going to be happy.

With little else to do with the snow & cold. I have been busy sourcing profiles.

Condolences and thoughts to all of you in the Eastern US ... YIKES! Been there (well, at least here), and done that!!!

That said, we're still experiencing "global warming" here in the west (Colorado) ... it was 50 degrees or so today. I went to the store without a coat. What? It's January ??? It's goofy stuff around here. Mountain snow pack is at 50-60 percent ... we rely on that water coming down the slopes. There's still time for a couple of big dumps up there ... here's hopin'

Still workin' through my Jewett book ... someone just posted a nice picture of their grandmother to one of my profiles ... I love Wikitree and the folks that contribute!!!

I went to a wedding in June in CO a few years ago. It was warm and the wedding party had sleeveless gowns. By the end of the ceremony a storm had come in over the mountains and it was snowing. I had packed a wool shawl in a tote I had with me. At least was warm... by the next day it had snowed 15 feet (it was over the top of a RV... never seen anything like it!)

Neat that a great idea Natalie all profiles should have that they should make a free space page, category, or something. Natalie I put a copy of yours and I am going to edit and I am going to be like Laura and give you credit for the idea here on the chat. Welcome everyone to the WikiTree Weekend Chat.

Sirius XM is satellite radio, which came "free" with my new car. I got hooked, so now I pay for it. :-)

Cleaning out the house before moving...UGH. I also despise that chore. We were military, so there was plenty of moving, but now we've been in the same house for 17 years (a record for me), but I'll have to clean out again when we downsize. Not looking forward to that.